Communication
by Mirrankei
Summary: "Now that they were gathered, the nobodies showed no interest in going back into the town. They just stared, in their weird, eyeless way, up at the sky...Some wandered to the bottom of the cliffs, peeking in crevices for… something."


"They're just… _standing_ there."

"Yeah," Sora muttered. He dismissed his keyblade with a shower of sparks and scratched the back of his head. "They look like they're waiting for something."

The entire beach was covered in nobodies. Sora didn't think he'd ever seen so many all in one place before. And they hadn't moved since they'd arrived.

Just over an hour ago, Selphie had come bursting in on the three of them, out of breath and pointing wildly behind her. "The beach!" she'd said, "The whole island's covered in these… _things_!"

Riku was the first one on his feet. He pushed past Selphie to look out at the road. "Heartless?" he asked.

"No, I don't think so…" Selphie bit her thumb nervously. "Heartless were all black and squirmy, right? These guys are mostly white and they kind of twitch…"

So Sora, Riku, and Kairi ran out the door, keyblades drawn, to find a swarm of Dusks, drifting through the air and dodging under cafe tables and causing a panic. Assassins were swimming through the floor and Dragoons were jumping from the rooftops.

The three of them split up, diving at the nobodies with vigor, but they'd all just danced away from the swinging keyblades. Sora made a quick gesture, and the three of them regrouped in the middle of the road.

"What's going on?" Riku asked. "They're not fighting back."

"They're not even _attacking_," Sora pointed out.

"They look like they're looking for something," Kairi said. And they did; the creatures were all over, peering in windows and peeking under tablecloths, but barely even acknowledging the people in the town. Their only reactions were to dive away from the few people who had gathered arms, dodging away to avoid being hit.

"Whatever they're doing, it's a big problem," Riku said. "We have to get them out of the town."

So the three of them, along with whatever help they could get from the rest of the town (mostly Tidus and Selphie), drew their weapons and herded the swarm away from the town onto the beach. The nobodies didn't put up much resistance. They just drifted away from the weapons as best they could.

Now that they were gathered, the nobodies showed no interest in going back into the town. They just stared, in their weird, eyeless way, up at the sky or at the ocean or up at Sora and Kairi and Riku. Some of them were still restlessly twitching, and some wandered to the bottom of the cliffs, peeking in crevices for… _something._

"What are they looking for?" Riku said, frustrated. "Why are they here?" He dismissed Way to Dawn with a frustrated sigh and sat down on the cliff to glare at them. A nearby Dancer cocked its head at him, turning it far enough over that it became a cartwheel. Riku threw a pebble at it.

"There's just no _reason_ for them to show up," he complained as Sora squatted next to him, still staring out at the sea of white and gray. "The Organization is _gone._ They can't be acting on their own, can they?"

"I guess they have nowhere to go," Kairi said, softly. "They do look rather lost."

"If they have nowhere to go, why didn't they just stay put?" Riku sulked. "Why do they have to show up here, right when things were finally going our way?"

"It's not like they're really doing anything, though," Sora said. "They haven't attacked us or anything. I feel kinda bad going after them when they just sit there."

The three of them waited on the cliff, watching the strange mass spread out along the beach and then gather back together as the sun sank lower. The creatures moved into smaller clumps, facing each other and twitching in a way that made it look almost like they were having a conversation.

They didn't say anything else. They just waited, hoping for some sign that the nobodies were doing something - anything - besides just standing around. When after a long while there was still _nothing_, Sora rocked to his feet. Riku glanced up at him, curiously, and Kairi took a step back to make room, but Sora just looked straight ahead.

"HEY!" he shouted. The nobodies barely even looked at him, but Sora was undeterred. He slid easily down the cliff face and walked right into the middle of the swarm.

"Hey," he said again, trying to figure out exactly where on one of the creatures he was supposed to look to make eye contact, "What are you doing here? We don't want you here."

A strange ripple ran through the nearby nobodies, as if they were listening and trying to figure out how to respond. Some of the braver ones drifted closer to him, swirling around him in that strange, drifting way they had. They were like birds, constantly moving but keeping their heads perfectly still, like they were examining him. Sora stiffened, but tried not to let his discomfort show.

"What are you doing here?" he repeated. He hadn't really expected talking to them to work at all, but at least he seemed to have their attention. And they still weren't attacking.

Another weird ripple, but whatever they were trying to say, Sora didn't get it. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Riku and Kairi had also hopped down the cliff, both with their keyblades at the ready, just in case. He shifted his attention back to the little cluster of nobodies in front of him.

"If you don't have anything here to do, then go home. Go back to The World That Never Was, and leave us alone."

They rippled again, and Sora was starting to feel annoyed. He'd thought at first they were trying to answer him, but now it just seemed like they were laughing, mocking him. Their little communication twitches seemed to be just between them, as if they knew he couldn't understand, and were just discussing the human in front of them as if he weren't even there.

"Knock it off," he said, clenching his fists. This time, when the nobodies moved in that weird little wave again, he glared hard at them, willing himself to understand.

And suddenly, he did. Not completely, but he felt something inside him shift, like a switch had been flipped, and suddenly the little ripple running through the swarm had a kind of meaning to it.

_Searching/looking/don't know what to do/thought there was something/are you here/it smells like you/what are we supposed to do_

Sora's back straightened in surprise, and the nobodies around him had a similar reaction. Their little wave of communication fell silent, and they were all looking at him now, their twitching and drifting stilled. Sora suddenly felt very uncomfortable; the nobodies had apparently noticed the same change that he had, and he suddenly had the attention of every single one.

From the group emanated a strange feeling of half-communicated emotions _surprise/respect/awe, _and Sora shifted uncomfortably. There was another little ripple, and one of the nearest nobodies, a Samurai, dropped to one knee. The ripple spread out, all the Nobodies speaking at once _we found you/you found us/finally/master/commander/Your Majesty!_

"Go home," Sora said again, but he hadn't really meant to speak and the voice sounded strange to his ears, like there was someone else talking at the same time. "I'll find you if I need you."

There was a short moment of hesitation, but within a matter of seconds the nobodies all disappeared into their little dark portals, leaving only a couple sparks of light and darkness that faded away behind them.

Sora turned, feeling rather shaken, and walked with a little stumble towards his waiting friends. He slowly started to feel normal again, the strange feeling from the nobodies fading back to wherever it had come from.

"Sora?" Kairi and Riku had stepped forward to meet him, each grabbing a shoulder to steady him. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah," he said.

"What did you do?" Kairi said, looking out at the barely disturbed beach. It was like the creatures had never been there at all.

"I don't really know," Sora said, and was grateful when Riku put his arm around his shoulder and started pushing him back up towards the town. The older boy didn't say anything, just looked troubled and stared straight ahead. Sora had a feeling he knew what had happened, at least as much as what Sora himself had figured, but that could wait until later. Kairi squeezed his hand, and he managed to flash her a reassuring smile.

He was feeling almost normal by then. The weird feeling had mostly settled down, but as it faded back inside of him, he felt another silent brush against his mind, the same way the nobodies had talked; _regret/embarrassment/Sorry about that._


End file.
